Jumping Through Hoops
by J.J. Larsen
Summary: Sam finds out that getting what you want isn't as easy as you first thought


_**As some of you might expect, yes this is another Sam story. I'm just trying him out and seeing which characters he goes well with and which ones he doesn't. If you want to see Sam with other people then check out my other stories, he is of course my favourite male Glee club member. This story is featuring my two favourite glee members so hopefully people will like it.**_

Disclaimer - I do not own the characters and this is purely fictional. The right for the characters remains with the creator and I in no way suggest any sort of ownership of them. Fiction is just for fun.

Jumping Through Hoops

Sam wasn't sure when he began feeling it again. He had gone a long time without any major attraction to anyone in the Glee club. He had only had two relationships of note and one of those he wanted to revisit. He had dated Quinn and Santana, both fellow glee clubbers, and since Santana was now a lesbian then he couldn't revisit that option. He had started noticing Quinn again.

It didn't happen in an instant, it happened over time, although the feeling came on somewhat out of nowhere to begin with. He remembered they were part of The God Squad and he'd always liked Quinn's voice, but he'd forgotten just how angelic she sounded until they had to sing Cherish at Sugar's party.

It was during the party when Sam approached her. She was sat at a table alone, as seemed to be her speciality recently. She'd gone through a bit of a bad girl stage at the beginning of the year and she had made some very bad mistakes in her life up until this point. She had in fact cheated on Sam with Finn which led to their eventual break-up and that's when Sam got together with Santana. But Quinn had always been the girl he wanted. Santana would sing insulting songs and be a general bitch to people but Quinn wasn't like that…anymore.

"Is anyone sitting here?" Sam asked as he approached the table. Quinn shook her head and gestured to the seat. It was strange seeing her with short hair still; when they dated she had longer hair but she cut it all off in New York. Sam liked it though, it framed her face and gave her a much more elegant style. Her new found style was also something Sam liked. It was difficult to say what her style was before because she was always either in her Cheerio's outfit or maternity clothes but this year she hadn't once worn a Cheerio's outfit and she wasn't pregnant so there was no need for her maternity clothes.

Sam always wished he'd been around for her when she was having the baby. He felt like he'd missed out on such a huge part of her life and felt bad for her when he thought about her going through it alone. She used to remind him a lot that she didn't go through it alone; she had the glee club with her the whole time. That's why Sam stayed part of the club. Glee wasn't about winning competitions or about who is better than whom - although it appeared that way most of the time - it was about having a family when you needed one.

"Did you have something you wanted to say?" Quinn asked. She could ask the most blunt questions and still, with her soft and angelic voice, it would seem like the most innocent of requests.

Sam realised he'd been staring for too long but couldn't think of what to say. He couldn't just blurt out his feelings like some crazy stalker, but he couldn't pretend he was just looking for a seat otherwise she wouldn't know that there was something more to his intentions.

"I like your hair." He realised the mistake once he'd said it. You don't compliment someone's hair months after they've had it cut; you either do it immediately or you don't do it at all. He had always regretted not saying it when he first saw her with short hair but she was too caught up in her own drama back then. Now here they both were, relatively drama free and so he compliments her hair - months after she had it cut. Sam always realised his mistakes a little bit too late.

Quinn looked confused and had every right to be. Her features weren't harsh enough to actually represent confused though; they had a more slightly unsure look about them. Sam didn't think she was capable of looking angry or confused. He knew she could look sad and she could look happy but any destructive emotions he didn't imagine her to be able to have. "Thanks." The reply was brief but her lips were curved into the amazing smile that she seemed to have. It was a smile that, when she used it, could make anyone happy. Even on the darkest of days Quinn's smile always made Sam happy.

"Are you happy with your life right now?" It was Valentine's Day and they were both single. It was a slightly stupid question to ask but Sam found no other words in his vocabulary.

"For once, yeah, I am." Unfortunately it wasn't the answer that Sam was expecting. Every part of him had a plan for when she said no and when she complained about being alone on Valentine's Day and when she told him that she was once the most popular girl in school and now she was unrecognisable. But she didn't say any of that.

"So no crazy plans to get Beth back? No asking people you barely know to raise your baby with you? No dying your hair, smoking and hanging out with some crazy girls under the bleachers?" Quinn laughed. She had to laugh looking back on it. If she didn't laugh then she'd cry and where she was in life; she didn't want to cry.

"Who told you about that?"

"You're not as much of a mystery as you might think." Sam, when he wanted to, could have the smoothest lines that would make any girl happy to be around him. His Justin Bieber phase had shown that he had the looks and that with the right lines he could have any girl he wanted.

"But you're a lot more confusing than you appear." She replied hesitantly. It was Sam's turn to be confused now and he wasn't sure he completely understood. Sometimes it would take him a few seconds to realise what people were saying and whether it was an insult or a compliment, but this one he didn't understand at all.

"I'm sorry?"

"You broke up with me to date Santana and most recently you've been chasing Mercedes round like you can't live without her. What's your angle Sam Evans?" Sam had never seen this Quinn before. She was straightforward and straight shooting with her questions. Sometimes she could make the perfect reporter because no one could ignore her.

"My angle?" He tried to play innocent, as if he didn't understand again, but the blonde hair and sexy smile only got him so far - especially with someone who had the same techniques. They were gender mirror images of each other. If Quinn were a boy she'd be Sam and if Sam were a girl he'd be Quinn. There wasn't anything else to it; but this meant she knew most of his tricks. "I'll be honest. I'm going to lay my cards down on the table and tell you exactly what's on my mind."

"For a boy to do that is a rarity indeed." Her attention had been drawn away from the party scene and now she was completely focused on Sam who sat opposite her in the booth.

"I like Mercedes. I like you. Mercedes has made it clear she's not interested in me and so-"

"So I'm your second choice?" She could ask the simplest of questions with the deepest of emotions.

"No, of course not. You would have been my first choice if you hadn't gone all crazy." Nice one Sam, call the girl you potentially love crazy, that's how to win her heart. But Quinn laughed, it was the same reason she laughed before; because if she didn't she would cry.

"You're not into girls with drama?" Sam wondered how this had gone so wrong for him. It had originally been so easy in his mind. He was going to sit down, tell her how amazing she looked and then comfort her when she said she wasn't happy with her life because she was single. As it stood though she was happy with her life and he'd called her crazy. It wasn't the way he had planned it. "Some guys like girls with a bit of an edge." Was she flirting with him? Being unable to read people well became very difficult when you had to wonder if a girl was flirting with you or not.

"I like honest girls. Girls that aren't afraid to be themselves." That was the smoothest answer he could've given and by the looks of things it definitely impressed Quinn.

"So if I told you now that there was no chance of us ever being together. If I told you that I've given up on men for the rest of the year and if you wanted anything to happen between us then you'd have to find me when we graduate. How would you react to my honesty then?" Sam may have been a smooth talker but Quinn had known guys like him before - she'd even known girls like him before - and she knew exactly how to counter.

To Quinn flirting was like a game of Chess. One person makes a move and then the other one takes their turn. Eventually when all your defences are down and the game is drawing to a close someone would make the final move and that would be the start of the relationship - or checkmate.

"Then I'd tell you, honestly, how good we could be together every single day until you changed your mind."

"Is that the kind of persistence that didn't win Mercedes heart?" It was difficult living in a small town; everything you did was something that everyone else would know in a matter of minutes. Sam could've lied and he could have told her that he didn't really love Mercedes and that he was just wasting time with other girls until the right time came with her. He didn't say that though.

"Mercedes isn't used to guys making her feel special; it comes as a surprise to her when someone does. She's put on the back foot when someone does something romantic. I think that you can't help romance. Deep down I know that if someone bought you flowers then you'd think it was sweet and not cheesy. If someone sang you a song you'd think the same thing." There was a few seconds silence as the words sunk into Quinn's mind. "Am I right?"

"If I'm not a mystery then you shouldn't need to ask." How had Quinn become such an enigma over time? When Sam left she was simple; probably because so much drama makes it hard to be a mystery. Everyone knew everything about Quinn ranging from her pregnancy to her Lucy Caboosy days and even her recent rebellious phase. Why, when she was being so normal and so easy to get along with, was she the hardest to read?

"Asking is better than doing."

"Is it?" Quinn had known what he meant but he asked such easy to misinterpret questions that she could twist them and he would be none the wiser. But this was what Quinn enjoyed; she enjoyed making men realise that she wasn't a fragile little girl that would break if they held her. If she gave in right away then she'd forever be treated like a princess - not like a woman.

"When did you become such a mystery Quinn Fabray?" If he had his guitar with him then Sam would have already tried to woo her with a song; in his experience no girl could resist a man with a guitar and a tuneful voice.

"When you were off becoming a stripper." Sam had tried not to mention that at all since arriving back at Glee. Rachel and Finn knew about it and eventually he had to try and teach the group some sexy moves, but he wasn't exactly proud of his past and he didn't really boast about his previous work experience.

"I needed the money."

"I needed the mystery." Neither of them had glanced away from each other since they sat down. The party could have stopped and everyone gone home and they would still be sat talking to each other while the cleaners swept the floor around them. Luckily though the party was still in full swing; not that either of them cared.

"So you're telling me that you are quite happy to be sat here alone on Valentine's Day? The Quinn Fabray I knew wouldn't be happy with that." Quinn's smile crept back across her face. She knew what he meant but he hadn't worded it properly; the biggest problem of Sam Evans.

"I'm not alone." Sam looked around, wondering if Puck or Finn was going to approach and ask what he was doing with their girlfriend. But no one came along. Then Sam realised what she meant.

"Sitting here with me doesn't count."

"Then if we dated I'd be spending every Valentine's Day alone according to your logic." Damn that Quinn Fabray. When had she become so intelligent? When had she become such an amazing conversationalist? When had she learnt to flirt? Sam decided to ask one of the questions on his mind.

"When did you learn to flirt? The Quinn I knew didn't need to flirt. She had those same pretty eyes that you've got and that same amazing smile that you've got. She didn't need to make men jump through hoops before they could date her. What happened to her?"

"Maybe you just haven't jumped through the right hoop yet." Quinn stood up and made her way across the party floor; she didn't get far though as Sam stopped her with a tap on the shoulder. When she turned around he was stood in the middle of the dance floor holding a red rose that he'd stolen from one of the displays.

"You wanted an action Quinn Fabray." He handed her the rose and he felt the spark when their hands touched briefly; he was sure he saw the moment in Quinn's eyes as well. "Did I get the right hoop this time?" Quinn smiled, lent in and kissed him on the cheek. Not a romantic kiss but more like a kiss to show appreciation for the rose.

"You said you'd pursue me every day until I gave in?" Sam nodded with a smile on his face, thinking he'd won. "Then I anticipate tomorrow." The smile didn't fall from his face. If Quinn wanted to make him jump through more hoops then Sam was going to jump through as many as it took to get her back.


End file.
